Last night’s State of the Union (SOTU) address made official what we’ve heard now from countless pieces of reporting: despite every warning sign about his handling of both the economy and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, President Joe Biden will continue stubbornly doubling down on his approach to both — despite the majority of both official and public opinion rejecting his handling of the two issues.

The president’s address saw the welcome infusion of pro-worker, economically populist notes that Biden has historically been allergic to. He invited and shouted out United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain to the event, called out billionaires for paying too little in taxes, and once again attacked the GOP for their plans to cut Social Security and Medicare.

But a closer read of the speech suggests that, rhetoric aside, the president is continuing to resist pressure, both from the streets and from within his own governing coalition, to change course on his handling of the Israeli war and to run on an ambitious progressive platform akin to the one he won the 2020 election. That could spell continuing trouble for the president, whose prospects at this early point in the campaign look dismal.